Everyone Backs Speech Ban, the Idiots

The lamestream media told you:

Government must ban texting while driving. It’s just too dangerous. Almost all states now do. The few stragglers must get with the program. Lives are at stake. How can you possibly be against this? We’re the media, we know what’s right for you. The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Pressure is on to get all states to outlaw texting while driving. Only Arizona, Missouri and Montana don’t have it yet. Arizona just introduced a bill, Texas passed one after a tragedy. That’s how we do things now.

There is no disagreement this can be dangerous, and has caused traffic accidents and fatalities. There should also be no disagreement that government has no legitimate delegated authority to enact such a law. The Constitution forbids it—“no law respecting freedom of speech.” Texting is freedom of speech. If someone has the power to ban this under one condition deemed problematic, nothing stops banning it under some other condition deemed suitable. “No law” means no law for a reason.

For good measure, the Arizona bill bans reading and writing while driving too.

This situation, if we still had values, would need to be handled with an ad campaign, marketing, social pressure, schooling, tech inside the device and other creative solutions. It can’t be handled by government edict, that’s banned.

If schools can teach and convince students they’re not male or female (they’re doing this you know) they could advise on texting behind the wheel. The new law doesn’t actually prevent anything, everyone knows that, it just makes teens do it below the dashboard, where visibility is even worse. And it provides a $25 fine (BWAHAHAHAHAHA!) for a first offense, and then gets worse. Social awareness would do a better job. And it would be legal.

Comments

[John Moore]

The laws are not banning speech, they are regulating the technology used for the speech, under certain restrictions. Hence, I doubt the First Amendment applies.

But... actually doing any good with such a law strikes me as really difficult, so I don't favor it.